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Neanderthals May Never Have Truly Gone Extinct, Study Reveals
NEWS | 13 November 2025
Neanderthals may have never truly gone extinct, according to new research – at least not in the genetic sense. According to the analysis, the long and drawn-out 'love affair' between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals could have led to almost complete genetic absorption within 10,000–30,000 years. It does suggest that genetic drift played a strong role – even with the researchers assuming the Neanderthal genes our species 'absorbed' had no survival benefit. Homo sapiens seem to have started migrating out of Africa much earlier than scientists previously thought, and they arrived in Europe in several influxes, possibly starting more than 200,000 years ago. Today, some scientists argue that there is more to unite Homo sapiens and Neanderthals than there is to differentiate us.

Top Stories:
Brain Scans Reveal Surprising 'Tipping Point' Minutes Before We Fall Asleep
NEWS | 13 November 2025
Far from gently drifting off, the brain rapidly transitions into sleep after passing a tipping point. "We discovered that falling asleep is a bifurcation, not a gradual process, with a clear tipping point that can be predicted in real time," says ICL neuroscientist Nir Grossman. "The ability to track how individual brains fall asleep has profound implications for our understanding of the sleep process and for developing new treatments for people who struggle with falling asleep." The team's model converted 47 features of brain activity captured by an electroencephalogram (EEG) into an abstract mathematical space. It could also help with more precise monitoring of anaesthesia and serve as an indicator of brain health.

World:
Scientists Are Hacking Bacteria to Fight Cancer, Then Self-Destruct
NEWS | 13 November 2025
Other times, tumours can "fight back" by suppressing certain parts of the immune system, reducing the impact of treatments. Broadly speaking, bacteria can activate the body's immune system to attack cancer cells. Listeria monocytogenes is the main character in more than 30 cancer vaccine clinical trials. Bacteria could boost existing cancer therapiesNearly half of current clinical trials using bacteria in cancer therapies pair bacteria with immunotherapies or chemotherapy as part of personalised treatment plans to enhance the body's attack on cancer. These include using immunotherapy combined with modified Listeria to activate the immune system for recurrent cervical cancer.

Current Events:
Venting Doesn't Reduce Anger, But Something Else Does, Study Discovers
NEWS | 13 November 2025
"Venting anger might sound like a good idea, but there's not a shred of scientific evidence to support catharsis theory." Related: Angry Outbursts Could Literally Be Putting Some People's Heart at RiskThat doesn't mean anger should be ignored. The findings show the key to curbing anger is reducing physiological arousal, the authors say, from anger itself or from the otherwise beneficial physical activity it might inspire. "And yoga, which can be more arousing than meditation and mindfulness, is still a way of calming and focusing on your breath that has the similar effect in reducing anger." Ball sports and other physical activities involving play seemed to reduce physiological arousal, suggesting exertion might be more useful for reducing anger if it's fun.

News Flash:
Your IQ May Affect How Well You Can Hear Speech, Study Shows
NEWS | 13 November 2025
Sometimes science comes up with associations that initially sound surprising, but which make more sense the more you think about them: like a link between having a lower IQ and also having difficulty hearing a conversation in a noisy environment. The researchers recruited 12 participants with autism and 10 with fetal alcohol syndrome, as both conditions are linked with difficulty hearing in noisy environments and include people with a range of IQ levels. "The relationship between cognitive ability and speech-perception performance transcended diagnostic categories," says auditory neuroscientist Bonnie Lau, from the University of Washington. That suggests that difficulty hearing in noisy environments may have more to do with certain forms of cognitive function than anything related to our ears. But the main takeaway from this recent study is that we need to go beyond the idea that problems with hearing always have the same underlying causes.

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SPONSORED | 13 November 2025
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Latest:
Constant Rain of Tiny Meteoroids Poses 'Silent Threat' to Future Moon Base
NEWS | 13 November 2025
As NASA's Artemis program prepares to establish a permanent lunar base, understanding this silent threat has become critical to keeping future astronauts safe. Using NASA's Meteoroid Engineering Model, the researchers calculated impact rates for a hypothetical lunar base roughly the size of the International Space Station. Unlike Earth, where our thick atmosphere vaporises most debris before it reaches the ground, the Moon's vacuum offers no such protection. The highest impact rates occur near the sub-Earth longitude, the region that perpetually faces our planet. Between these extremes, impact rates vary by a factor of roughly 1.6.

Breaking:
3 Giant Solar Outbursts Explode Towards Earth, Prompting Aurora Forecast Across US
NEWS | 13 November 2025
A series of three powerful flares and associated explosions of solar material out across the Solar System have set Earth squarely in the path of a "severe"-level geomagnetic storm. Space weather forecasting bodies are predicting a G4-level geomagnetic storm, with the Australian Space Weather Forecasting Center even warning of the chance of a G5. All three are also categorized as X-class flares – the most powerful flares our Sun can produce. This is a giant expulsion of solar material, sending billions of tons of solar plasma and entangled magnetic fields hurtling through the Solar System. Particle interactions in Earth's atmosphere, as solar material slams into it, can generate electrical currents that cause surges, disrupting power grid operations, as seen in a giant 1989 event.

Trending:
Amazon Lakes Became Hotter Than a Hot Tub, Killing Hundreds of Dolphins
NEWS | 13 November 2025
In 2023, a severe drought heated several Amazonian lakes until they became hotter than a hot tub. The resulting conditions killed more than 200 dolphins, countless fish, and many other aquatic animals by the thousands. From the world's reefs, to eels, birds and African elephants, this is yet another mass mortality event of Earth's wildlife now attributed to climate change. This region, including Earth's largest remaining tract of tropical rainforest, holds about a fifth of Earth's freshwater, but the changing climate conditions are drying that up. Now Fleischmann and colleagues have found that the average water temperatures of flood-plain lakes in the central Amazon region have increased by 0.6 °C per decade since 1990.

This Just In:
Scientists Create Digital Twin of Earth, Accurate to a 1-Kilometer Scale
NEWS | 13 November 2025
Technically the scale of the new model isn't quite 1 sq km per modeled patch - it's 1.25 kilometers. The "fast" systems include the energy and water cycles - which basically means the weather. For this model, the authors used the ICOsahedral Nonhydrostatic (ICON) model that was developed by the German Weather service and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. The model used as the basis for much of this work was originally written in Fortran - the bane of anyone who has ever tried to modernize code written before 1990. To do so, the model used nearly 1 trillion "degrees of freedom", which, in this context, means the total number of values it had to calculate.

Today:
Your Heart Health in Middle Age Could Predict Your Later Dementia Risk
NEWS | 13 November 2025
A 25-year study of nearly 6,000 adults found that subtle heart muscle damage in middle age predicts dementia risk decades later. Troponin I appears in the blood when heart cells are damaged and is used to help diagnose heart attacks. Over 25 years, people with higher starting troponin levels were more likely to develop dementia than those with lower levels. For every doubling of troponin, dementia risk rose by 10%, even after considering age, sex, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and other cardiac risk factors. By age 90, their cognitive performance was equivalent to that of people two years older than those with lower troponin levels.

Top Stories:
Microscopic Engine Hotter Than The Sun Probes Limits of Physics
NEWS | 13 November 2025
A tiny, particle-sized engine that runs at temperatures approaching the innermost core of the Sun could open a window into the smallest extremes of thermodynamics. Remarkably, this also offers insight into the complex microscopic processes that take place within our bodies. A Stirling engine works by heating and cooling a sealed gas or fluid so that it expands and contracts in a repeating cycle, converting heat into mechanical energy. A microscopic Stirling engine is a miniature analog, based on the same principles, but operating on a micrometer scale. The team now hopes to push their microscopic Stirling engine even further from equilibrium, exploring the strange, fluctuating physics that govern motion and energy at the tiniest scales.

World:
ScienceAlert's Top Stories Are on YouTube. Subscribe Now!
NEWS | 13 November 2025
The world's number one science news website has a new way for you to experience the latest in discovery, technology, and innovation – we're now on YouTube. Subscribe to ScienceAlert's YouTube channel today and experience your science news in a dynamic new format. Watch this clip to see how:frameborder="0″ allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen>Ever wanted to know what a black hole sounds like? Take a listen to this spooky sound:frameborder="0″ allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen>Got a deep fascination for space? frameborder="0″ allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen>With a growing library of content, ScienceAlert's YouTube channel is your catalogue of scientific curiosities – ready to spark your imagination.

Current Events:
There's One Super Predator in Africa That Instills More Fear Than Lions
NEWS | 13 November 2025
Related: Human DNA Found in Lions' Teeth Confirms a Tragic Legend of HistoryWe're the monsters lurking under other mammals' beds. "The fear of humans is ingrained and pervasive," said Clinchy. "There's this idea that the animals are going to habituate to humans if they're not hunted. frameborder="0″ allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen>But conservation biologists may be able to harness this knowledge to help these species, too. But just having us out there on that landscape is enough of a danger signal that they respond really strongly.

News Flash:
A Common Pain Relief Drug May Have Anti-Cancer Properties
NEWS | 13 November 2025
Ibuprofen's broader potentialIbuprofen's possible cancer-protective effects extend beyond endometrial cancer. It can also alter how DNA is packaged within cells, potentially making cancer cells more sensitive to chemotherapy. A study involving 7,751 patients found that taking aspirin after an endometrial cancer diagnosis was linked to higher mortality, particularly among those who had used aspirin before diagnosis. Despite the promise, experts warn against self-medicating with ibuprofen for cancer prevention. If future studies confirm these findings, ibuprofen might one day form part of a broader strategy for reducing cancer risk, especially in high-risk groups.